This invention relates to toys, and has particular reference to a toy of the type in which an assembly of relatively heavy bodies is supported on an elongated line and adapted to be whirled, lasso-fashion, by manipulation of a handle to which the line is connected.
Numerous toys of this general type have been known in the past, one example being shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,605,327 as having a string with a series of five balls threaded onto one end portion of the string and positioned in spaced apart relation, lengthwise of the string, to be whirled about the central ball of the series. Another interesting toy of this general type, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,826,861, comprises two spheres that are joined together by a stiff rod and are supported by a flexible line. Several other patents disclose toys in which a hoop or rope, similar to the loop of a lasso, is supported by a line.
The recreational value of such prior toys was to some extent limited, because of the limited variety of permissible activity, and in most cases because of the absence of any intrigue or mystery in the effects that could be achieved with the toys. The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a novel toy of the foregoing general character which is capable of use in a wider variety of ways, increasing as the level of skill of the user increases, so as to maintain interest and provide a progressively increasing challenge, and which, at the same time, involves a degree of intrigue or mystery in its operation.